South Koreans wait to leave for the North Korean city of Kaesong at the Inter-Korea Transit Office in Paju, South Korea, on April 1. / Ahn Young-joon, AP

by Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY

by Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Two F-22 fighter jets now in South Korea could allow the U.S. to support a limited counterattack if North Korea follows through on its threats of recent weeks, according to military analysts.

In 2010, South Korea responded to artillery fire from the North with its own shelling, said Bruce Bennett, a military analyst at the RAND Corp. think tank. The F-22s, the world's most advanced warplanes, could be used to destroy artillery command and control facilities deeper inside North Korea, Bennett said.

"The aircraft could reach those targets pretty securely," Bennett said. "And they could deal with it promptly. Only sending a couple says we're not starting a major war."

Nonetheless, an airstrike on North Korean soil would be a significant escalation that could trigger an even larger response by the nuclear-armed regime. The hope, Bennett speculated, is that the presence of the radar-evading jets will be enough to prove U.S.-South Korean resolve and prevent an attack from the North.

The explicit nature of the threats from North Korea differs from the past, said Victor Cha, a Korean expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It has prompted a more robust response from the U.S. military, including the deployment of F-22s.

"It shows that the U.S. is not simply writing off bluster as meaningless and harmless, Cha said.

The concern is starting an escalating chain of attacks and reprisals, Bennett said.

"This is kind of like the Cuban missile crisis," he said. "What does it take to cap an escalating series of events?"

The Cuban missile crisis, which nearly sparked a nuclear confrontation, was defused when Russia agreed not to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. The Kennedy administration also made concessions.

Last week, two B-2 stealth bombers took part in joint exercises with the South Korean military. The bombers, capable of delivering nuclear weapons, flew from Whitman Air Force Base in Missouri, dropped dud bombs on a South Korean range and returned home. The bombers' mission came after threats from North Korea to attack U.S. soil with missiles, a capability the North likely does not yet possess.

The deployment of F-22s from Japan to South Korea had been planned for some time, said Army Lt. Col. Catherine Wilkinson, a Pentagon spokeswoman. It is the fourth time they have been sent there.

"The F-22 Raptors are one of many alliance capabilities available for the defense of the Republic of Korea," Wilkinson said.

The U.S. Navy also has a ship with sophisticated radar steaming in the region, according to a defense official who was not authorized to speak on the record. The official pointed out that it routinely operates there and has not yet been assigned to tasks specifically concerning North Korea.

The F-22 has had a checkered history. Conceived in the Cold War as the successor to the F-15, the F-22 was designed to dominate the sky, penetrate enemy air defenses and deliver punishing airstrikes. But it was plagued by delays, cost overruns and was of no utility in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where it did not fly a single mission.

It also had problems with its oxygen system that resulted in the 2010 crash and death of a pilot.

Pyongyang has reacted with anger over routine U.S.-South Korean military drills and a new round of United Nations and U.S. sanctions that followed its Feb. 12 underground nuclear test, the country's third. Analysts see a full-scale North Korean attack as unlikely and say the threats are more likely efforts to provoke softer policies toward Pyongyang from a new government in Seoul, to win diplomatic talks with Washington and to solidify North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's military credentials at home.

On Sunday, Kim and top party officials adopted a declaration calling nuclear weapons "the nation's life" and an important component of its defense, an asset that wouldn't be traded even for "billions of dollars." Pyongyang cites the U.S. military presence in South Korea as a main reason behind its drive to build missiles and atomic weapons. The U.S. has stationed tens of thousands of troops in South Korea since the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953.